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C’mon…get out the sewing machines!

Ive been meaning to do this for awhile, ive been accumulating sewing patterns found online for the modern Irani chadors and the plain, traditional chador. I know some of you have asked me for this information. Sorry!

Anyway…I share what I have…just know, im horrible at ewing from a pattern and when I saw I just eyeball it and prefer to use a garment I already have as a template. Please dont ask me for translations or measurements or anything…not because I’m being mean but because 1-I dont have time what with school and all and -those of you who really do know how to sew and use patterns should be able to work with these as they are fairly straight forward. I’d suggest before ruining nice fabric making a mock with some cheapo muslin or scrap fabric.

The best fabric of the Irani modern and traditional chadors are a good quality, lightweight crepe…especially Japanese crepe. Ive seen such fabric being sold on the UK Ebay. Maybe a very light polyester blend. For the house or prayer chadors use a cotton or preferabbly a cotton blend. Traditionally house chadors are colored with a print, prayer chadors are either white or printed and outside chadors are black or nowadays, maybe dark colors are becoming popular (see previous post).

**note a last year I made a post showing how I cut, piece and sew one of these…I’ll try to find it for reference. Found it…its HERE

Also this post shows the popular kind of black crepe nowadays…its like sheerish jacquard fabric…

Do look at my link above, as its missing the last step where you cut on a rounded edge…since the chador is just a huge open semi-circle of material. Do check that out to ensure you make it right!

B) Chador-e Melli…aka “modern chador” aka…National Chador.

This is the original “modern chador”…all the other styles that have rapidly developed are an offshoot of this design (generally).

You can make it dark for outside (or light if you choose), printed for when guests come over and white and wstitched up to the chin with or without a chin cover for salaat or hajj/umrah.

Note: style requies elastic placed inside of it to anchor it to the head!

or….

In a nutshell, the Melli is very easy to make…just make a regular, plain chador like A, OK once its all done and pieced…then lay it as shown and cut into it to make sleeves…you’ll need to measure and be cautious when doing this! Make sure you cut out little gussets as they go under the arms…then piece the gussets and stitch up…voila…

C) Arab chador -aka…abaya ra’as…overhead abaya

D) Chador-e Qajari

And for those of you who enjoy a sewing challenge…try the Qajari style chador with mini sleeves, seen below! I cant even begin to fathom how to piece it, sorry! LOL

9 thoughts on “C’mon…get out the sewing machines!”

Assalamu alaykum oukhty, glad I found this post here and I really want to sew a chador-e-melli for salaat. according to this pattern:https://muhajabat.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/melli3.jpg Unfortunately I do not understand farsi, can you please help and tell me what the triangle on the bottom of this pic is for? Is it for under the armpits or is this supposed to be the sleeve? I simply do not understand where to put this triangle… It would be very kind, if you could please clarify this to me.
BarakaAllahu feeky oukhty,
Eman

asalaamu alaikum…sister the triangular piece is actually a gusset which goes under the arms. The chador melli is one piece cut out from a regular chador, but it needs the gusset under the arms so it fits properly. Just see the 2 patterns I put up, you’ll see this in the 2nd one.

asalaamu alaikum …sister patience is a virtue. I dont always get to all comments right away. I am in school and work and have a family. Sometimes also comments dont show up if they are flagged as spam, which yours was…I dont know why, but it was. OK. I generally erase faces if I know the pictures are personal, such as my own…after all, do you really want some skeezy person knowing what you look like online…erm…no. If they are models or celebrities or someone who plasters their photos everywhere then I will generally just leave them alone. It depends on the picture and the situation.

assalamu alaykum, yes Sister, sorry, patience is not my best virtue obviously, but I work on it.😉
Thank you for your explication, I will try to figure it out cause I think there is no better clothing to be used as a prayer-outfit. Thanks once more and barakaallahu feeky.

wa alaikum as salaam. No worries. Well sister, if you can made a traditional chador (I may have directions somewhere on the blog, I forget though exactly) then you can just fold in half like in the diagrams and cut into it to make the sleeves then you sew it up the sides/arms and add the gussets, not very hard…but you must have a chador already made to use.

Also, I think its a decent prayer style…but no better or worse than any other kind. It maybe easier maybe a traditional overhead abaya for salaat as its just a huge square. Also a long khimaar with a skirt is also good for salaat. There are many diff. types of clothing suitable for salaat, you just hafta know what is good for you. Also I DO have up directions to make this new style of prayer chador where its a huge rectangle and you step into it. https://muhajabat.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/sew-new-type-of-prayer-garment/

excellent prayerset! I think I will try to sew this type! … and the length of fabric in the back does not bother while going down in ruku or sudjood?
Concerning the Chador melli. Please see this what I found: http://media.farsnews.com/Media/8704/ImageReports/8704280611/21_8704280611_L600.jpg
I think this pic shows quite well a way how the arm-part is sewn in. Is this also a chador e melli? Or is this again another type of chador?

wa alaikum as salaam…sister thats most definetly not a chador-e melli. It looks very strange to me actually. It looks like someone took their prayer chador, cut holes at the sides and added little cuffs or something. I dunno, I have enough pictures up on my blog showing chador-e melli that if you did a search for it, you shouldnt have a problem finding pictures. Also a gusset is in the underarm area. Its generally not visible and is not a sleeve. If you ever see a traditional malaysian baju kurung or shalwar kameese they all have gussets at the underarm as they use rectangles of fabric to compose their shirts and so requiregussets for ease of movement. I think you may have more luck with the pattern i put up for the prayer garment…its a bit easier and simplier esp if you havent ever sewn a chador before or know hwo a chador-e melli is made/pieced. also sis being that ur in salaat you want your stuff to be long anyway to cover everything and if your used to long garments you generally shouldnt be tripping. Its like if you wear overhead abayaat you get used to getting up and down in them…its only people who arent used to them that find them cumbersome, with it practice it shouldnt be an issue. Best of luck